Overview

Presenting stunning reproductions of oil paintings by landscape artist Philip Juras, this exhibition catalogue offers a glimpse of the pre-settlement southern wilderness as late eighteenth-century naturalist William Bartram would have experienced it during his famed travels through the region. Juras’s work combines direct observation with historical, scientific, and natural history research to depict, and in some cases reimagine, landscapes as they appeared in the 1770s. Juras spent years researching Bartram and revisiting important sites the naturalist wrote about in his celebrated Travels. Juras’s paintings recreate the lost southern frontier for contemporary viewers in much the same way that nineteenth century American landscape painters like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran brought the western frontier to the consciousness of the rapidly industrializing East. Juras’s work explores many of the important and imperilled ecosystems that remain in the South today. These little-known, remnant natural communities, depicted in well-researched and meticulous paintings, are further illuminated by essays placing them in the context of Bartram’s legacy and the American landscape movement. The catalogue features more than sixty reproductions of Juras’s paintings. Presented with essays by the artist as well as Dorinda Dallmeyer, director of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program at the University of Georgia; Holly Koons McCullough, director of collections and exhibitions at the Telfair; and Janisse Ray, lauded poet and environmental advocate, the catalogue provides readers with a rare glimpse of the Southern frontier before its essence was irrevocably altered by European settlement.

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9780820347974

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Reviews

If I could live inside Juras's paintings, I would. Surrounded by flora and fauna, light and darkness, the weather. Enlightened. In touch with God. Inside God's hand.--Janisse Ray, from the book Knowing what has been lost, we might be tempted to wallow in nostalgia for the long-gone world Bartram describes. Instead, reading the great gift of Bartram's words and viewing these landscapes by Philip Juras should heighten our commitment to saving what remains.--Dorinda G. Dallmeyer, from the book Works that are grand in scope but intimate in their attention to even a single blade of grass.--Garden & Gun Philip Juras can see ghosts. Not the wandering spirits of people long gone, but the ancient landscapes of the Southeast--the forests and plains and marshes--as they appeared before civilization changed everything. . . . His love of the land, artistic talent, and interest in history have come together in the collection.--Augusta Chronicle

Knowing what has been lost, we might be tempted to wallow in nostalgia for the long-gone world Bartram describes. Instead, reading the great gift of Bartram s words and viewing these landscapes by Philip Juras should heighten our commitment to saving what remains.--Dorinda G. Dallmeyer, from the book

Philip Juras can see ghosts. Not the wandering spirits of people long gone, but the ancient landscapes of the Southeast--the forests and plains and marshes--as they appeared before civilization changed everything. . . . His love of the land, artistic talent, and interest in history have come together in the collection. -- Augusta Chronicle

Author Information

Philip Juras, a native of Augusta, Georgia, USA, received a BFA and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia, USA. He lives in Athens, Georgia, USA.

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